Chris Chapman

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Jun 11, 2015
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Hi Guys

This is my first post & I'm very new to this, so please be gentle.

I've done a search and had a look around the forum, but couldn't find an answer to my query.

I bought a T8-S a week ago and although I've not had much time to really use it a great deal, I'm slowly finding my way around and this website has been a help, although there are still a lot of things that are way over my head right now.

My query is about installing a new HDD. I know it's pretty simple to use external storage for videos/photos etc, sometimes external storage can be a little unstable or stubborn, so I want to simplify it completely and install a HDD.

The first thing I wanted to know before I do this is will apps like Showbox view the HDD as internal storage and allow files to be downloaded to it, or will it view them as an external storage and I'd have to manually move the files after download?

Secondly, can I install any 2.5 inch SATA internal hard drive?

Cheers
Chris
 

ChrisM

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Jul 15, 2014
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Any 2.5" SATA drive should be OK, but not heard about anything over 2Tb being tested yet. SSD also fine, though I don't know enough about TRIM support and other SSD like areas in Android/Linux, so consider whether a normal rotating drive (if quiet) would be better.

As the firmware/device currently stand (I've typed this out recently somewhere) the internal hard drive wouldn't be treated as internal storage. There is hope that this will be possible (fully automated) with a future update, but NO guarantee about that.
 

Chris Chapman

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Jun 11, 2015
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Hi SilentlyScreaming. I've just realised that I didn't thank you for your original reply, so apologies about that and thanks very much for your help.

Following your reply I decided to get an internal hard drive, but steer clear of an SSD or anything too large to be safe. I went for a 2.5" SATA 750GB, but after installing it last night and testing it out, when I booted up my T8-S and went into any of the file manager apps, it doesn't seem to recognise that the hard drive is there, only showing an SD card and USB stick that I've got currently plugged in as external memory sources.

I followed the instructions on the video uploaded to the Droidbox YouTube channel, but do I need to do anything after turning my T8-S box on to activate hard drive connection somehow?

I did check the wiring harness to ensure it is connected correctly, which it is.
 

ChrisM

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The unpartitioned hard drive won't be seen in Android, it can be formatted in OpenELEC (with a EXT4 partition). There is an update for OpenELEC to do with formatting the hard drive, and there should be an OTA update for Android soon, to enable it to read EXT4 partitions natively.
I had my drive formatted already in a PC, but given that I'm using FAT32 or NTFS (can't remember which right now), we've been told not to suggest this approach, as the performance is inferior, compared to an EXT4 partition.
If you've formatted in OpenELEC, keep an eye out for news about the Android update coming soon. You should already find the formatted drive in OpenELEC OK though.
 

Laurence Dagley

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Feb 22, 2017
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how do you format a hard drive in libreelec ?? i have tried everything it finds my hard drive in system but nothing in libreelec system im at a loss
 

Laurence Dagley

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Feb 22, 2017
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I finaly managed to get it working only for it to keep disconnecting so I think hard drive faulty so have ordered a new one let's hope this works
 

ChrisM

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Can you check the power supply for me, please? If the DroidBOX is turned off, unplug the power supply and check for where it mentions 5V , does it mention 2.0A, 2000mA, 2500mA etc ?